IT’S 3RD AND LONG

Sullied p.r. whiz faces hurdles even with QB Brady

Disgraced CEO whisperer Declan Kelly — who has pegged his return from exile on the horns of the GOAT — has a steep hill to climb to fully rehabilitate his image after his spectacular downfall as boss of public relations giant Teneo, people close to the p.r. whiz told The Post.

The former Clinton fixer and adviser to Fortune 500 titans resigned as Teneo’s CEO over sexual-misconduct allegations last year.

He had gotten drunk at a VIP fund-raiser thrown by anti-poverty charity Global Citizen in Los Angeles on May 2, 2021, and, according to sources, inappropriately touched as many as six employees at the star-filled gala.

Kelly, 54, acknowledged the incident as an “inadvertent, public and embarrassing mistake” and added he “apologized to those directly affected, as well as [to] my colleagues and clients,” but he still left the firm he founded in 2011.

He returned to his native Ireland for a few months and spent time with family, a source with knowledge told The Post.

Bringing in Brady

“He fled the country, he was so embarrassed about the Teneo ouster,” the source added.

By July, he set up his next venture, The Consello Group, according to public filings. He has since returned to the US and last month made a splash with the announcement that seven-time Super Bowl winner Tom Brady, the NFL’s Greatest Of All Time, will join his nascent consulting firm as a partner.

People who know Kelly say they aren’t surprised he would target someone with major star power such as Brady to lead his comeback, given Kelly’s playbook is to recruit eye-popping names to his firm.

According to a source, Kelly emphasized his new business would focus on crypto — one of Brady’s main interests. Brady and supermodel wife Gisele Bündchen own a stake in crypto trading behemoth FTX; Brady also started NFT platform Autograph.

“Kelly is the best at figuring out what people want to hear and exploiting it. He can lure anyone in,” a source who used to work with Kelly told The Post.

A spokesperson for Brady declined to comment.

Bad behavior

Despite the addition of Brady, Kelly’s former employees warn his behavior when he first started Teneo may come back to haunt him.

“In the early days of Teneo, he encouraged certain employees to call him ‘Daddy,’ ” one former staffer told The Post.

“He rules by fear,” another former employee said. This source adds Kelly told drivers not to speak to him.

Kelly would also try and project an image of someone who had pulled himself up from his own bootstraps — and relied on anecdotes he believed employees would find compelling, sources said.

“At all staff presentations, he would use a black-andwhite stock images of a couple in front of a burneddown house and say they were a picture of his parents,” a source said.

Another source noted he would talk about his impoverished parents and share odd details — he claimed his parents used an outhouse and that his father couldn’t read until he was 40.

“I spoke with people who knew Declan in Ireland and they all knew him to be solidly middle class,” another source added. “But Declan didn’t let truth get in the way.”

Kelly refused requests for comment from The Post.

The p.r. maven, who had deep political ties and was able to nab former President Bill Clinton and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair for his Teneo board, previously peddled access to important political figures as part of the reason he could charge top dollar for his services. He was even appointed Special Economic Envoy to Northern Ireland by Hillary Clinton in 2009.

The reason he’s having to bring on athletes, the former workers added, is because he’s alienated many of his longtime political allies.

“He pissed the Clintons off,” a former Kelly confidant said. “They felt used, and haven’t spoken in years.”

Neither Bill nor Hillary Clinton responded to a request for comment.

Kelly’s connections allowed him to charge unheard-of fees in the industry.

Clients paid for pixie dust. I can see how Dow [Chemical] would value Bill Clinton getting [the CEO] a meeting but Tom Brady can’t do that.

Money moves

Dow Chemical doled out millions, including a multimillion success fee one year when company CEO Andrew Liveris got three front page stories in The Wall Street Journal.

“One year, Declan put Andrew with [Former President Barack] Obama 13 times on stage . . . that’s how you get those big fees,” a source said.

One expert told The Post: “Clients paid for pixie dust. I can see how Dow would value Bill Clinton getting him a meeting but Tom Brady can’t do that.”

What is shocking industry insiders is that Kelly hasn’t been sued by private equity firm CVC, which bought his stake when he was dumped by Teneo.

When he left, Kelly signed a noncompete clause that prohibited him from opening a firm too similar to Teneo, sources told The Post.

Some sources note Kelly is cozy with CVC management. These sources suggest Kelly may still have a stake in Teneo and could still be moving puppet strings behind the scenes.

CVC had no comment. “He was very strategic about building relationships with CEOs, and those CEOs will only work with him and not Teneo,” a source said.

— PR industry expert